I'm reading Radcliffe Hall.

She has many feelings that modern transmen, female detransitioners, and butch lesbians would recognise.

But to call her a "transman" makes no sense, historically.

I'm reaching for something here, you might be able to help me clarify it.

The existence of the category "transman" depends on the possibility of medical transition.

You can't be a tramsman without it.

You might have all the same feelings, but not have access to drugs and surgeries, and it wouldn't make sense to say you ARE trans.
I want to go back to my Foucauldian academic roots and start talking about the way in which institutions create and forbid desires, identities, enable ways of being. But also, f*ck Foucault, child rape apologist, "bucolic pleasures," no thanks.
How do i say it in words i can believe? Am i back to "trans is not a thing you are, it's a thing you do and it's a very recent, modern solution?"

Ok,i think i have it. Is the desire to say about historical figures "they ARE trans" actually a move to solidify trans as a category?
To say that trans as a category has always existed and that it can exist outside of drugs and surgeries? To give it "depth and weight"?

If you say "x historical figure is trans" you are saying "trans is what you are, not what you do."
There's a difference between the statement "I'm a fisherman" and "I'm a man."

One describes material reality, one describes identity.

When you say that historical figures, you move trans from the fisherman category, to the man category.

People caught fish 500 years ago.
But that doesn't mean that they WERE fishermen, in the sense that fishermen are today - tackle and bait shops, getting out the house on a Saturday, never catching anything, the one that got away... There's a whole identity attached.
Likewise, Radcliffe might have had Miss Ogilvy say "I wish i were born a man," but the context of that wish matters as to the meaning of it.

I'm not sure where I'm going with this, I'm thinking out loud, i feel like there's something important that I'm not quite getting at.
I'm fairly sure somebody is already going to have said it, and better than i could of i thought for a hundred years, so if you can point me in the right direction, lovely tweeps, i would be very grateful.

More from Transgender

”No child should ever be forced to live a life that is not theirs, I did and it nearly killed me many times.”


It appears that every time an under-age Transgender person attempts to access medical care to make their lives better conservative people try to say they’re not ready for it.


As an older transgender woman who waited until I my mid 30’s due to those same prevailing attitudes, I feel it’s sad right-wing people are still trotting out those same tired old lines.

According to them, we’re too young to know our gender pre-pubescent and when we start undergoing a puberty which doesn’t align with our gender identity apparently we’re still far too young to access puberty blockers to make the masculinisation process go away.

These people only want us to access medical care after the age of 18 and that’s when it’s far too late for many Trans women, as the whole masculinisation process [which we didn’t want in the first place] has already happened.
Okay #trans allies - what are you going to do to help us? Actual, concrete actions? What will you do:
- today?
- over the course of a week?
- before the end of the year?
- throughout 2021?
I want to hear about it - and I want you to spread the word to other cis people.

Some ideas, if you're stuck. If you have the money, donate to one (or all) of these fundraisers/organisations:

1. @GoodLawProject Transgender Lives

2. A trans healthcare/mutual aid fund:
- @BlkTAlliance

- @BlackTransUK

-
https://t.co/4sIT4GJ08r

- @transMAMCR

- @SWTNMutualAid

3. @Genderintell, to get help to the young trans people under attack right now.

4. Educate yourself about #trans lives so that you can confidently spread that knowledge amongst your cis networks. Buy a trans-authored book today, read it cover to cover, then PASS IT ON TO A CIS FRIEND. Is there a trans resource you love? Give it to ALL your cis friends.

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